MS: Check the data

I wanted to respond to Larry Spencer of Post Falls. He is getting his info from the New England Journal of Medicine in 1983? Holy Cow, how far back is that? Perhaps he is not aware that the Pacific Northwest has the highest incidence of MS anywhere in the world except some village in Scotland (I can’t recall the name of the village). In the late ’90s the VAMC in Spokane was assigned our first neurologist. After six months, he was hired away by the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta to study this unique phenomenon. Is it genetic? Is it environmental? No one knows, as far as I know. But for Mr. Spencer to quote dated material from 1983 is foolish.

I don’t know what the latest data is. I’m not a doctor or a scientist. Presumably, neither is Mr. Spencer. But for him to rant and rave against politicians because he thinks money isn’t being spent is wrong. Money IS being spent, and scientists are researching multiple sclerosis. Finding the answers to neurological disorders isn’t the same as creating a vaccine. He should realize this and accept the will of whatever powers run the universe.

BETSY ROSENBERG

Rathdrum